Experiences of Pethidine

I agree CAM. There was no way I was letting anyone interfere with my back during labour (I doubt if I could have lain/sat still long enough to get an epidural into me to be honest. It was the ONE thing I really didn't want. I had a lumbar puncture a few years back and ended up with chronic headaches for months, and have had 2 or 3 friends for whom epidurals (and one was a mobile) have gone really badly wrong - one friend ended up flat on her back in hospital for over 2 weeks while they tried to figure out why she'd not got any feeling in her legs!
And I am oddly smug that I didn't have one. I used the gas and air and had diamorph in my first labour and felt in control the whole time.

How interesting that Pethidine doesn't seem to prevent pain,but does prevent you remembering it! Seems a bit of a con to me.
BTW I am amazed that more hospitals don't offer mobile epidurals. It seems to me these should be standard issue for all you stoical folks not going for a c-section ( ) - particularly as the studies I've seen show that they don't increase the 'risk' of intervention.

I find it interesting that Bundle refers to her epidural as "I only had an epidural" and wouldn't touch pethidine with a barge pole. For me that would definitely be the other way round!

PS gas and air is fantastic. If you could buy it a the supermarket, I'd be there every Friday night!

I had pethidine with my first (due to long labour bla, bla, bla) and I loved it. My husband, however, thought I'd gone mental for a couple of hours - talking absolute gibberish mainly, but no change there. My baby was very sleepy though, and not just immediately after, for about 3 or 4 days. I even called my mum over to try and wake her up for a feed after about 10 hours of sleep. Didn't have anything with the second and have to say I felt a hell of alot better after the birth and he sat there wide awake waiting for his first feed. To be honest, if, at the time, you need it, then go for it, but if you think you can manage without it then do't bother. Good luck.

hmb, I only had an epidural as I'd had vomiting from the start of my labour & heard that entonox can make you feel nauseous which I was anyway! I ended up with an emergency c-section so had a top up for that and was very impressed by the effectiveness, if a little worried at one point at just how low my blood pressure got!

Interesting article. I didn't have pethedine in labour, but I did have diamorphine. I found it good, and contoled my pain better than the entenox I had to that point. It does sedate, as does the entenox, but I found it better as the pain increased. Dd was more than 8 hours outside the dose IYSWIM, as I later needed an epidural which was topped up for the section.

Hmmmm. Here's an interesting article on some of the studies involving pethidine/opiates

Pethedine is an opioid analgesic, it is licenced for the treatment of moderate to severe pain, obstetric analgesia and peri-operative analgesia (according to my rather dated BNF). It also makes you feel 'out of it', which might explain the sedative effects that ou describe so well. But it is an analgesic, and has a similar profile (but not identical) to morphine and heroin.

I thought pethidine was a sedative rather than an analgesic, ie it'll probably make you less aware of the pain/coherent but not actually tackle the pain itself. it's the only drug midwives can give you - apart from entonox - and I suspect that's why some midwives are so ready to offer it. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, but it's up to the individual.

If you're gonna have pethidine have it early rather than late in the labour, and don't expect it to help, anyway.

I have a friend whose baby almost wouldn't breathe at birth because she had pethidine too close to the birth (at midwife's encouragement). Worst part is, the whole experience was nearly repeated with her 2nd baby (midwife saying, "You'll be ages to deliver, have some pain relief", and then 20 minutes later baby arrives, but thankfully friend had declined pethidine). And it nearly happend to another friend ("Yes, we agree you aren't coping with the pain well and you're hours from delivery; oops, is that the baby's head we see crowning?".)

Anyway, I had pethidine when I thought (had been told) I was hours from fully dilated, and no way I could envision another 4-7 hours without some strong pain relief. Then sure enough I was fully dilated 45 minutes later and pushing. I guess I can be very glad it did take hours to push him out...

Plus the pethidine meant constant internal monitoring so I couldn't move around or adopt any sort of birthing position where gravity would help. There were other interventions that only happened to me as a knock-on effect of having the pethidine, too.

And on top of all that, I can honestly say I don't think the pethidine helped relieve my pain relief.

So I guess you can tell I'm not a fan! Too dangerous, and doesn't work, anyway... In My Experience.

Pethadine and diamorphine are both in the same class of drugs but they are not the same, and do have sligtly different actions, and side effects. Diamorphine is also known as heroin! I have had both, once following an operation and once in childbirth. I was very sick with pethadine (even though I was given an anti emetic) I was fine with diamorphine. I breast fed in the recovery room with Dd, but the diamorphine had worn off several hours before she was born by c -section.

I didn't have pethadine, I had Diamorphine (is it tha same thing???). I had and injection at 9.30am when I was 5cm dilated and ds was born at 15.35pm. I was told that the drug normally last 3-4 hrs so should have worn off by the time ds was born, but he was VERY spaced out!! He didn't cry for about an hour, he just stared into space and looked around him. He didn't show an interest in feeding until about 3 or 4 hours later. But I was ok with that coz I was knackered!!!! That was 19mths ago and he's a perfectly healthy boisterous, cheeky boy!

Good Luck with the water birth, it sounds fantastic, I might look into to that for nunmber 2 (IF there's a number 2!).

Sam29 - have you asked about a mobile epidural? You can still walk around with these but not all hospitals offer them. I hated pethadine when I had it for IVF egg extraction. Could still feel everything!

I had pehidine with dd, despite writing in capitals all over my birth plan that I only wanted gas and air (ha ha ha - 24 hour nightmare labour followed by a section, so much for the birth plan!), but found it knocked me out. I was contracting for 1 minute every 3 or 4, so was effectively asleep for three minutes, then in excutiating pain for one minute then back to sleep again. Totally unaware and out of it. Not sure whether this was good or not.....

Some hospitals can do 'mobile' epidurals, where although you can't walk around you do have enough feeling to be able to turn around on the bed and get comfortable - might be an idea.

My experiences were thw same as sb34's. Had it in both my labours.

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My hospital gave diamorphine rather than pethedine and that let me have a dozr inthe early stages of labour with dd.
But I did have a lot of pethedine 2nd time round. I suffered from kidney stones in my pregnancy with ds and as you cant have the painjillers they usually use for them while you are pregnant I was on pethedine for the pain - (for 8 weeks I had it every day!!). Both ds and I were addicted by the time he was born - I was given the antidote at the end of my 1st stage so that he would have it too by the time he was born. We both were a bit jittery and had trouble sleeping from 3-6 days after the birth, but that is because I had been taking so much of the darn stuff. It didnt affect breastfeeding at all and I would have it for labour if was ever having any more (which I'm not!!)
This is your first baby isn't it sam29? You might find you need something like pethedine in the first stage as it can be quite drawn out and painful first time round. But Gas&Air is great and hope all goes well

I had pethidine along with gas and air when my first ds was born. The pethindine blunted the pain but not enough to stop me calling for an epidural.(I was too late to have one). I definetely remember lots about the birth and really didn't feel numbed mentally or physcially at all. It just took the edge off the pain.

My baby son latched on at first feed, despite the fact I was a totally inexperienced breast feeder. However, he was drowsy for a couple of days and didn't feed quite as long as the midwives wanted him to either. Still put on weight though, slept easily and seemed pretty contented for a newborn, so really no huge problem.

So yes, I'd go for pethidine if you don't have a water birth.

I was induced and the contractions came very quick and hard. I stopped dilating but the contractions were still very painful so I was advised to have pethidine (in fact I had it twice) - I loved it! I had my second dose at 10.30am and didn't have my dd until 12.17am so the effects had worn off by then - I had no drugs at all for the second stage which I am very pleased about. So in all I found pethidine to be useful to give me a bit of space. I found it had no effect on dd and she bf with no problems straight after birth.
I would keep an open mind especially if this is your first baby. I was wanting an active, natural birth and didn't really have one. On a drip, monitered and eventually an epidural (which I was taken off before entering the second stage as I wanted to be able to feel my legs). But the midwives were fantastic as they felt sorry that my birth hadn't gone according to plan and when it came to the second stage they were so encouraging about me doing it with no intervention, no drugs and no doctors. So I did! Something I am very pleased about and because of that I had an enjoyable birth and can look back on it with immense joy and not be upset that it hadn't gone to plan.

I had pethidine with my first baby and I didn't mind it at the time (!) but in retrospect it made me very woozy and I would never have it again. I think all opiate based drugs tend to 'blunt' your experiences, and sometimes if you have a 'bad' birth it can be good to discuss it afterwards without having your memory clouded by pethidine. It wasn't that effective as a painkiller, I think at least an epidural would leave your mind clear to concentrate.

I had pethidine with my first child and, luckily for me, didn't have it with my next two. I was given it on the recomendation of my midwife who thought I was out of control and "losing it" - they didn't think I was in labour and the baby was ready to be born (although I was 9 days late).

She was born within 20 minutes of the pethidine being administered and there should be a space of between 4 hours (I am sure the midwives on here will vouch for this) between pethidine being given and the baby being born as it makes them very slow to react and she had to be given the anti-dote for it when she was born as she was born too quickly after I had been given it.

I found it didn't actually work that well - I felt the gas and air was much better but that might have been because I didn't have it soon enough before my DD was born.

I think pethedine's effects vary depending on the person and the aneasthatist/dose.

I had it for a D&C and it was absolutely horrible. I could still feel everything but just felt drunk. If I had given birth in the UK I would have chosen gas and air, but they won't do that in Spanish hospitals so I had an epidural.

And it wasn't that bad! They did tell me not to get up for 24 hours, but I didn't feel woozy and could move my legs. I did have a very long labour though and the epidural could have been part of it.

To be quite honest if I were you and the water were unavailable I would go for the "walking around the room" method for early labour and G&A alone for the second part.

I was due to have a water birth with ds1 and on arrival at the hospital was told I wasn't far enough on to get in the pool-3cm so was given pethidine at that stage - I felt that I lost control for a couple of hours and dont really remember them - possibly a good thing as I managed to rest. I was sick as well but this is common in the early stages I believe. Anyway when they checked me after two hours I was fully dilated so too late for the pool and too late for more pethidine so finished the job on gas and air. there was no effect on the baby but then the pethidine had long worn off by the time I gave birth

So many people say that they have had positive experiences with pethidine but personally I would avoid it next time due to the out of control feeling it gave me.

Good luck - whatever you decide to do.